Peak A Boo

January 23, 2012Angela (Oh She Glows)

by Angela (Oh She Glows) on January 23, 2012

Thanks to your helpful suggestions, we had hiking on the brain this morning!

Eric and I headed over to Pinnacle Peak for a 3.75 mile there-and-back trek along the mountains. Tomorrow, we have Camelback Mountain on the agenda which many of you raved about. Opportunities for hiking are everywhere around here! We’ve never hiked along this kind of desert terrain before and it’s incredible to see.

First we filled up our tanks. My mom made us these juicy fruit parfaits to go along with our breakfast fare.

I had another Green Monster made up of kale, frozen banana, blueberries, protein powder, almond milk, and ice. Unfortunately I found out that the Maranatha dark chocolate almond butter isn’t vegan like I thought, so that was left out this time. I think I got it mixed up with Justin’s chocolate almond butter in all my sleep deprivation excitement.

If you are looking for a vegan dark chocolate almond butter recipe, you are in luck because I made one last year that tastes incredible!

Green moustache ensued.

The trail was challenging, but not overly so (rated “moderate”), wrapping all along the sides of a couple summits with some butt-busting inclines. My glutes were actually sore by the end of the 3.75 mile hike! Buns of steel here I come.

Not.

After wrapping the side of the first summit, we looked over to the second and said, “We’re going all the way over there too?”

Yes, yes we were.

It’s always fun to reach the peak of the trail.

Mad respect for the Saguaro.

The hike took about 1 hour and 20 minutes (including photography) and boy did we work up an appetite in the process.

Along with buns, apples, leftover tomato salad, hummus, and celery/carrots.

And an apple + dark chocolate squares for dessert.

We spent the afternoon relaxing and catching up! It’s been a while since we’ve been able to spend this much time together, so it’s been nice to visit with my parents.

Dinner was filled with an array of roasted vegetables, along with something that I often overlook- couscous! I always forget how much I enjoy couscous, especially when paired with sautéed greens and mushrooms.

We adapted the roasted vegetable dish from the Whitewater Cooks Cookbook. It’s filled with roasted zucchini, red peppers, eggplant, yams, purple cauliflowers, beets, fennel, basil, and parsnip, all coated in a balsamic maple dressing. We weren’t thrilled about the cup of oil that the original recipe called for so I just mixed the dressing ingredients to taste. I ended up using 1/3-1/2 cup balsamic vinaigrette, 3-4 tbsp maple syrup, 4 tsp Dijon mustard, 2 minced garlic cloves, 2 tbsp olive oil, and1/2 tsp kosher salt, pepper. The outcome was a sweet maple balsamic dressing that paired well with the roasted veggies…no cup of oil required.

and the couscous with sautéed spinach and button mushrooms in a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper. I could eat bowls and bowls of this simple dish. Mom, John, and Eric also has some BBQ’d chicken to go along with dinner.

Now we’re sitting here debating whether to catch a movie at the theatre tonight. Anyone see any good movies lately?

This is going to sound so crazy, but I was there this morning too! I am on twitter and one of my followers (who is a reader of your blog) said NO WAY!!! A girls blog I follow hiked the same mountain this morning too! Crazy small world!

Looks like a great trip. The hiking looks amazing. I took up hiking a few years ago and hike alot on the Bruce Trail – Ontario’s longest hiking trail and love it all year round. You may get hooked on hiking. One of my favourite cookbooks is the Whitewater Cooks – recipes are amazing.

Wow! Love what you’ve been eating, Angela. Do you ever count how many vegetables portions you go through on average a day? I’d be really interested to know you should do a post on it :) The hike looks wonderful. Hope you’re enjoying yourself sweetheart. Love from England.

I don’t tend to count portions or servings and it varies a lot each day. When I’m home and working, I tend to get lazy with my own meals, but my veggies have been pretty frequent here so far…thanks to mom. heh

oh there are a ton of them. You should actually check out this blog called http://hikingwithbarry.com/ he does a ton of hiking in Canada (lots in Alberta) and in the US. Around our place we love Rattlesnake Point, Crawford Lake, Hilton Falls, etc.

It’s incredible how much a good hike revs your appetite. All of your food looks wonderful, especially the roasted veggies and purple (!!) cauliflower. One of my pet peeves is when recipes/restaurants drench veggies in tons of oil. It’s so unnecessary!

What a great hike!! I absolutely love hiking and wish I had put more effort into finding places to hike this past summer. (It’s on my list for this year though!) The scenery looks amazing, and all that wonderful food you’ve been enjoying does too! I hope you enjoy Camelback Mountain too. Your mom is so lucky to have a house in such a gorgeous place!

I feel like I have to post something, I’m a virgin poster which means I just enjoy reading your posts on the train to work. However, I feel like you have been connecting me to my roots lately. Last fall you came to new York and gave me some wonderful ideas for restaurants to try as I just moved here two years ago. THEN, you went to San Diego which is where I grew up…. Love those sea lions! And now you’re in Scottsdale which I lived for three years. I used to hike pinnecle peak all the time. I always loved the tourists who walked to the tallest point (sometimes weakening jeans) and walked right back down even though the trail is really just beginning! Check out pita jungle, one of my favorite lunch or casual dinner places there! The hummus is
Awesome!!!

Laura, you’re spot on! Pita Jungle’s hummus is so good, and I love their lentil fettoush or roasted veggie salads as well. I do love Green and Nami, but it’s very processed American fare, so I only go there to treat myself once in a while. And True Food’s good, but they only have a couple vegan items — their kale salad (w/o cheese) is the best! I’ve copied it to make for myself at home all the time.

ohh hiking out west is so different from the thick foresty mountains I’m used to on the east coast. Such gorgeous terrain though, arizona is so beautiful! Glad you’re having a relaxing time with family!

I haven’t gotten to hike in ages, now I’m aching for a vacation!! What beautiful scenery!! And I will be making myself a green monster here shortly NOMS!!
Side bar: I’m new to your blog, and I just don’t know how I went without it for so long!!

The Phoenix area is also home to several amaizing vegan restaurants: 24 Carrots (Chandler), Pomegranate Café (Ahwatukee), Chef Sara raw vegan signature creations (Cave Creek). Greens (Tempe) is also very popular, but they specialize in faux meat which is not my style. Tsom (Tempe) is inexpensive and well received.

So weird to see all the pictures of AZ! I live in Phoenix and now I’m wondering if I’m going to just see you out somewhere! I saw the latest Mission Impossible movie last weekend (and it was just about the last movie I wanted to see – I agreed to go because my fiance has been requesting it for weeks) and it was really great. It was funny and exciting and pretty much just totally worthwhile.

Man, you are making me miss Phoenix big time (lived there for 2 years)!! Especially this time of year. Enjoy your trip!! Are you going to Sedona while you are there? I think it’s up there as one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

SO jealous! I used to live in Scottsdale and got enganged near the top of Camelback Mountain. I loved hiking out there! I loved hiking up north in the mountains too, Sedona is really beautiful if you get the chance to get out there to both hike and shop. Have fun!

You’re in my town! Camelback is a great choice! May I make a recommendation, if you have tried Camelback ever before, to go up the back end (ie the camel’s “bum”) which is the Cholla trailhead? It’s longer and much more lovely IMHO than the Echo Canyon trailhead. I used Cholla trailhead frequently when I was training myself to hike the Grand Canyon – it’s a good hike! You get some beautiful views of the San Francisco Peaks and Superstition Mountains not to mention a peak in the “back yard” of the Phoenician resort. I’m sure you have many recommendations, already, but feel free to email me if you want to try anything new – I have a pretty good pulse on what’s new and unique to Phoenix (I love this town and I regularly advise friends on new things to try and do). I hope our weather stays lovely for you – we have a bit of an overcast (one of our 8 days of cloudiness a year).

Thank you so much! I appreciate your help. We hiked the Camelback today….it was killer and amazing in so many ways. WOW. Im not sure what side we hiked though, but I think it was the less difficult one!

Your pictures look like you did Echo Canyon. I can tell by that horrid bar up the granite. That’s a beast on my knees! Enjoy the weather and the sunsets. Sedona is gorgeous – you will absolutely love it. There is no other place on the planet like it. I suggest taking the 89A when you get to Sedona up to the top of Oak Creek and then driving that back down through Jerome (the sweetest copper mining town turned artist community you will have ever seen) on your way back into Phoenix. It will add on about 30 minutes to the drive home but the views will be worth ever minute. If you like wine, you can stop in Cottonwood (and Jerome) to visit some tasting rooms for some of the Arizona wineries (don’t expect to find any cabs in the tasting rooms – we grow totally different grapes here).

Have always wanted to see Arizona but was told there are scorpions, tarantulas and rattle snakes everywhere – even on your porches. Always scared to go. Did you see any while hiking? The landscape looks beautiful. The weather looks really nice too.

The Iron Lady is supposed to be good as well as Tinker Taylor. Go to the Ipic theatre, its really cool and in Scottsdale. Its a modern take on the old school movie theatres where you can get a glass of wine or some food brought to you during the movie!

Hey I noticed that you’ve been really into the tea lately. Have you ever worked with loose leaf tea? There is an amazing tea shop that has a location in a mall in Phoenix called ‘Teavana’ if you happen to pop by Baltimore Fashion park I was just there last week and they had tons of yummy teas to try, and I know they will be opening locations around Toronto this year too!

love love love hiking in the Phoenix area. My husband actually proposed on Pinnacle Peak. :) Just a little warning – Camelback is a lot more work than Pinnacle. We were told it was a slightly harder trail, I wish I would had a snack to enjoy when we got to the top of Camelback. Have fun!

What a beautiful hike!! And hiking always makes me SO.HUNGRY. Like, more than running for the same amount of time! Weird, right?

I saw Girl with the Dragon Tattoo recently, and thought it was good (the book and Swedish version are better) – but be warned that it is dark and could be pretty disturbing if you don’t know what to expect. I have also heard that the new Sherlock Holmes is very good.

One of my best friends lives in Phoenix and we’ve hiked Camelback when I’ve been out to visit. It’s probably one of my favorite hikes I’ve been on. There are some incredibly strenuous parts that make you so proud to accomplish, and the views are breathtaking. Enjoy it!

I went to AZ once on business and it’s a great spot. The landscape is so different from Ontario, it’s incredible. Beautiful, just different. More like a moonscape. And I had no idea that cacti grow so old!

Glad to hear you’re having a good time! We LOVED mission impossible. I was very, very surprised by it. So much better than the last one with all the masks and stolen identities. You really don’t need to have watched the previous movies to enjoy this one. It’s an on-the-edge-of-your-seat movie. Definitely worth seeing in theaters.

I have been reading your blog for a few YEARS now and these days I am too busy to keep up every day. I just so happened to check in and find that you are in my CITY! I see you’ve gotten some great recommendations above on places to check out, but I HAVE to tell you about the Phoenix Public Market. They have an open air market on Wednesday evenings beginning at 4PM where they sell local, fresh produce and they cook up some amazing food. Seriously, I don’t think your trip would be complete without a visit to PPM. If you are in town Saturday they do a winter chef series and it’s awesome. Check out their website: http://foodconnect.org/phxmarket/?page_id=25. Camelback will kick your butt, but you will LOVE IT! Glad to see you are in my neck of the woods. Any meet ups while you are in town?

while you are here, you should check out the supreme master ching hai’s vegetarian house (http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/22/264675/restaurant/Biltmore-Arcadia/Supreme-Master-Ching-Hai-Vegetarian-House-Phoenix) and true food kitchen (http://www.truefoodkitchen.com/). they are both delish. two of my absolute favorite places to eat!

Some restaurant recommendations while you are in the Phoenix area: Green New American Vegetarian Restaurant (although it boasts a menu largely composed of meat analogues, there are some yummy dishes, including the famous TSOYNAMI, which is essentially a vegan Dairy Queen blizzard), True Food Kitchen, and Chakra 4 Herb and Tea House (they have a colossal menu of teas and deliciously fresh salads and wraps that can be made vegan upon request). Happy dining!

What fabulous food on vacation! I tend to shy away from really cooking while away (unless it is just my husband and kids and me) as no one else seems to eat like me. It is so wonderful that you all can eat such great, healthy food – and they can add things here or there as needed (meat!). Looks like a wonderful get away – and what great time you and Eric get with your Mom and John. Time like that is a gift to be sure :-)

Have a great time. I was in Phoenix last August for the first time ever, I loved it, but didnt get much hiking, as it was 117 degrees!! We did walk up to the rock with a hole in it across from the airport. It was beautiful, but an easy climb :-)

Goodness it looks beautiful there! The food doesn’t look too bad either. ;-) I haven’t seen too many movies, but I thought The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was very good (but intense). I also saw Hugo a couple days ago and thought it was pretty good!

Welcome to AZ!
Where did you find the purple cauliflower?? I live in Gilbert (part of the Phoenix valley). If you hike Camelback tomorrow, be sure to hike the Echo Canyon side. It is definitely my favorite! Not to mention, quite the challenge. You will get to parts and think… “Are you SERIOUS?!” It is fun! If your going to be here much longer, and are looking for one more good and long hike try Flat Iron. It is at the Superstitions, the east part of the valley. It is fun and extremely steep! The view is awesome from the top!! It takes a few hours but is worth it! My husband and I were actually talking about hiking it this week too. Have fun while your here!!!

I love Pinnacle Peak!! My aunt lives right by there and we always go hiking there and at Camelback whenever we go to visit!!! Such beautiful places! Looks like you guys are eating well at your moms house!!! I am seriously drooling over every meal you post about!!

Looks like such a lovely vacation! “War Horse” was fantastic! I am a huge fan of your writing and recipes. You are definitely an artist in every sense…an artist of tastes and colors and words. I became a vegan last October and finding your website was a blessing. Thank you for being you and for encouraging us all to glow from the inside out. :-)

When you are visiting Sedona you MUST go to the Enchantment Resort and have lunch, or at least a prickly pear margharita in their lounge. The views from the restaurant are spectacular. Also, try to tour the spa – it is incredibly beautiful.

Hey Angela! I love your green monster recipe my bf and I make one every morning! I want to start adding protein to my smoothie and was wondering what kind of protein powder you use. Thanks!! and I love your blog :)